good day from new york, it's high noon here in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. we are waiting for the daily briefing with new york governor andrew cuomo. we will bring that to you live. new clashes over getting back to business. governors weighing the consequences of doing too much too soon. more money, the latest on washington's effort to keep americans from drowning in debt. how much longer can we do this?

a new poll shows where many americans stand at stay at home. preliminary results of a government experiment on what the sun can do. let's get going with the facts. as of this hour, there are nearly 730,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across this country. more than 38,000 people have died. a new poll out today shows a majority of americans support keeping the stay at home restrictions, 58% say they are more worried about the fallout from loosening restrictions too quickly than they are of the economic consequences. we will have a live report on this from the white house in a moment. first, on capitol hill, lawmakers say a deal for a fourth coronavirus relief package could come as soon as tonight. >> we have common ground. our package was something we worked together in a bipartisan way, springing from that and

making it more effective and stronger so that more people are benefitting from it. and protecting by it. i think we're very close to agreement. >> i'm hopeful that we can reach an agreement that the senate can pass this tomorrow and that the house can take it up on tuesday and wednesday would we be back up and running. >> a live look now from new york. that's where governor andrew cuomo will hold his press briefing. it's going to be on long island. we will bring that to you. tomorrow, all walmart and sam's club employees will be required to wear face masks. that switch, a response to the cdc change in guidelines. shoppers will be encouraged to wear some sort of face covering. let's go to monica alba with more on the new poll numbers we mentioned. she's at the white house. let's get to you about the other highlights. what did you find out from the numbers? >> reporter: exactly. this is the backdrop to the

white house's decision making this week as they look to ease restrictions in certain parts of the country, telling states that if they meet some particular criteria, they can begin to think about reopening. as we heard from the president last night, he intends to do that and urge states to do it as soon as this coming monday, friday and before that may 1st deadline. as we look to see almost two-thirds of americans polled in our new nbc news "wall street journal" poll say they are more worried that if the guidelines are lifted too soon, that could lead to an increase in cases and deaths from coronavirus. as opposed to an affect on the economy. we look specifically to the president's handling of the pandemic so far. about 44% say they approve of what he has done. 52% say they that disapprove of what he has done in the face of the pandemic so far. when it comes to questions of the economy -- this is so much of what is driving white house's decision -- it looks like 45% feel the state of the economy is

currently in poor shape as compared to 22% saying it's in excellent shape. this really is the clash that we see here between the public health emergency and the crisis and what many are feeling and sensing in terms of economic anxiety. that's the fine line the president continues to walk. when asked today what she thought of his handling so far, speaker nancy pelosi had some pretty harsh words and criticism for the president. take a listen. >> i'm afraid that he is going to act on the basis of what he acted before, it's a hoax, it's magically going to disappear. he failed in the testing and the rest and it's a hoax and it's going to magically disappear. that's not based on science. this isn't magical. this is scientific. >> reporter: the president and his health officials are stressing while there are encouraging signs, we are not

sure we are past the peak in all hot spots. as we think about different economies, a lot of other states that are feeling the effects are deciding to extend their guidelines well beyond may 1st. some going into june. the president is trying to signal to places where cases are low that they should continue with these steps. when asked this morning, dr. birx said people should make decisions on a community to community, this is no longer about the federal guidelines, social distancing is important. but it's down to counties to decide how they will proceed. >> monica alba, thank you. new reaction to new york city to the president's silence on the exclusion of funding for cities and states from this coming stimulus package. new york is the epicenter of the outbreak here in the united states. what are officials saying that we need from the president here in this state? >> reporter: yeah. without question, the most hard

hit state by far in the united states. governor cuomo has been touting new york's economy is absolutely necessary and vital when it cops to comes to restarting america's economy. they say they need more people. also, new york's mayor had some choice words for the president today. >> president trump, what's going on? cat got your tongue? you are usually really talkative. how on earth do you think that new york city, which has been the epicenter of this crisis can get back on our feet without federal support? mr. trump, mr. president, are you going to save new york city or are you telling new york city to drop dead? >> reporter: he also went on to say new york city is where you

had your opportunities, mr. president, and now new york and the state of new york and the city of new york need you. the previous stimulus provided to states was to the tune of some $150 billion. governor cuomo said that was inadequate when it comes to the actual distribution of that, new york didn't get nearly as much, not a drop in the bucket of what the state needs. all of this comes as even though the numbers start to go down for hospitalizations like new york presbyterian behind me in lower manhattan, still the need is very high and volunteers still continue to come out. states have to support those volunteers. new york included. house, feeding them. the need is quite great this afternoon. >> 100%. thank you so much for that. businessowners in new jersey's beach towns are preparing to take a financial hit this summer in the wake of the pandemic. many of the boardwaulks and

beaches that were supposed to open, they are still closed. this could be the new norm for a while. maura is in atlantic city, new jersey. that's the only boardwalk open but limited. right? >> reporter: exactly. it's a sunny spring day here in atlantic city. there's folks out here bike riding, running, going for walks. the mayor tells me he wanted to keep the boardwalk open so residents could exercise in the fresh air. all of the businesses along the boardwalk are closed. i took a walk a little bit earlier. everything is boarded up. the casinos are shuttered. this is the time of year when a lot of these businesses are picking up, getting ready for the busy summer season. the casinos are a big draw for people philly area. those are closed. a lot of the workers laid off. that's the story across the board for the seasonal businesses. they tell me that last summer was one of the best summers in the last 30 or so years. you will remember, atlantic city

has been digging itself out of this economic hardship in the past couple of years. they have been on the rise. business owners were looking ahead to this season. while they are used to preparing for things like hurricanes or bad weather, they couldn't prepare for a pandemic. the owner with his brother of steel city piers. it's one that you recognize with the ferry rides, games, that kind of thing. he typically employed 300 people every summer. they haven't been able to get the pieces into motion because the governor says the beach towns won't reopen until june or july. i asked him what he is telling his typical seasonal employees. take a listen to what he told me. >> we had to lay them off. they are collecting unemployment until we get back in full gear. we are trying to take advantage of some of the c.a.r.e.s. act benefits. but the funding ran out.

we're in the cue but funding is out. we are waiting for another charge of funding to be approved so we can get our payroll, bring these guys back to work. >> reporter: i asked anthony what specifically he is looking for. he said it's time for the federal government to step up and approve funding for another round of loans for businessowners like him. all this talk we hear today about negotiations coming to a close and a possible deal in the next coming days is good news for businessowners like anthony here in atlantic city. >> we will take it. thank you so much. good to see you there. colorado is among the states with a panmandatory stay at hom order. the state has more than 9,000 cases, more than 400 people have died. protesters are planned for downtown denver today. it's meant to stop traffic around the capital. joining me is the governor of colorado. thank you for joining me. first off on the sunday, are you

surprised by the outrage and all of the coloradans that seem to be willing to defy the safety ord orders? what do you want to say to the demonstrators? >> i think we're all -- have a lot of cabin fever and can't wait to get out. we have two kids, 8 and 5. i certainly feel what everybody is going through, not to mention the economic need to be able to go out and earn a living. we are looking forward, as anybody was from the day this started, to being able to allow for a lot more economic activity and we just have do it in a different way, smart way. this is a marathon, not a sprint. we have to pace ourselves for the type of social distancing and safe behavior. >> in terms of a smart thing, what about the president's tweets about liberating michigan and minnesota? is that feeding into the sin sentiment? is this rally politically

motivated today? >> i mean, america is the land of the free. we were liberated in 1776, declaration of independence. i'm not sure who this further liberation would be from. we are a government of, by and for the people. i think the elected leaders are doing their best across the country to balance the economic needs of the nation and the health needs of the nation. >> governor, you probably are familiar with the denver post article today. it makes some observations about your state in terms of its neighboring states, those being wyoming, utah, nebraska, oklahoma. none of which have the stay at home orders. we talked about the number of cases of covid-19 in your state and the deaths. let's compare that with utah which has 2,300 cases and i believe 23 deaths. what is the difference? how do you explain that to those who are critical of the stay at home order given the parameters not coinciding? >> i don't think we would have

gone to this horrific step of stay at home if we had 23 deaths. we have over 400 deaths and climbing. you do have to look at where the virus is in different parts of the country, even in our state, different counties. i think that's appropriate, different regions. in fact, one of the very first counties it went into a lockdown a week before the rest of the state is now requesting to come out of it which is great. they might come out of it earlier because they went into it earlier. >> okay. governor, we are going from one governor to the next. i thank you for your time as we shift everyone from colorado to new york. let's listen to governor andrew cuomo. >> tend to run one into the other. today is sunday. i like to focus on the facts in this situation, because facts are what's most important. a lot of people have opinions and a lot of theories. senator daniel patrick moynihan, who was a great senator from the state of new york liked to say, everyone is entitled to their

own opinion but not his own facts. so let's give the people of the state the updated facts. this is the chart of total hospitalizations. we have been watching this 24 hours a day for it seep seems most of our lives. it has only been about 40 days. the total hospitalization rate is down again in the state of new york. we're down to 16,000. if you look at the numbers, we're at 18,000 people hospitalized for a period of time. it flattened there for a while. it paused there. then it went down to 17,000. but this is a low from our high point of 16,000. big question of whether we have been past the apex, past the high point. it turned out the high point wasn't a point, but the high point was a plateau. we got up to a high point and we just stayed at that level for a while.

but if the data holds and if this trend holds, we are past the high point and all indications at this point are we -- that we are on a dissent. whether or not that dissent continues depends on what we do. but right now, we are on a dissent. that's in all the numbers. hospitalization numbers are down. the three-day average of the hospitalization rate is down. i was speaking to michael and -- that's what he is seeing in his hospital system. that's what emergency rooms across the state are saying. that they see the maximum inflow is less than what it was. that all tracks with what the numbers are saying. this number of intubations, which i watch carefully, because intubations are the number of people put on ventilators, and

80% of the people who are put on ventilators don't make it. so this is a very important chart to look at. the fact that those numbers are down is very important. this is a reality check with all the good news and the reductions. we still have 1,300 people that yesterday came in and tested positive and were hospitalized. 1,300 is a lot of people coming into the hospital system with that diagnosis. less than it had been. so that's good news. but it is still 1,300 people who are testing positive and need hospitalization. we have been watching the spread of the virus from the new york city area. and there have been little outbursts on long island and upstate new york and we have been jumping on those outbursts. but overall, we have controlled it.

the numbers are about the same. westchester and rock dlland -- first problem was westchester county, new rochelle. westchester, rockland, long island, upstate new york is about 7% of the cases. we're watching for a potential spread in other parts of the state. so far, we have contained it and we have controlled it. nursing homes are still our number one concern. the nursing home is the optimum feeding ground for this virus. vulnerable people in a congregate setting where it can spread like fire through dry grass. we have had disturbing situations in nursing homes and we're still most concerned about the nursing homes. the worst news of all for us to live with every day and an everyday tragedy, we lost

another 507 new yorkers. those are not just very large numbers we see. every number is a face and a family and a brother and a sister and mother and father and people who are in pain today and will be in pain for a long period of time. so we remember them in our thoughts and prayers. but on this sunday, day of reflection, thank you from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of all new yorkers for the people at northwell have done, the entire team. this is the team effort. to all our health care workers across the state, 1 million health care workers, 445,000 hospital workers, 160,000 nursing home workers, they have made all the difference in the world. crisis like this, it tends to

bring out the best and the worst in people. certain people can break your heart in their response to this. but on other hand, other people can rise to the occasion and just give you such a sense of confidence in the human spirit. and the health care workers have done that. i have been looking at this chart for 40 days. it looks like a bar chart. it looks like numbers in a line. i don't see it as a bar chart, as we have been going through this. to me, it was a mountain that just kept building and building and building, and you didn't know where the top of the mountain was. and those numbers kept growing and we kept going up the mountain, and we kept wondering, where is the apex, what is the high point, when does this stop and we get to the top of the mountain and by the way, it's not a point. then it plateaus. it plateaus at a very, very high

rate, which means every day those health care workers have to come in and they are seeing a tremendous number of people come in the door. overwhelming the capacity of the hospital. remember, we asked hospitals to increase their capacity 50%. so if a hospital had a 100 bed capacity, now they have a 150 bed capacity. it stuck at that very high level on that plateau. that was day after day after day, people who were at their max and had given it all and then the next day it's the same thing all over again. but they did it. they got us through the plateau. now they're getting us down the other side. we just pray to god that it remains down on the other side. there's been a lot of pain and a lot of anguish for a lot of people. but the skill, the courage and the love of our health care

workers, of our first responders, our police, our essential workers, they have really gotten us through all of this. we also want to thank our neighbors. 95,000 medical professionals who agreed to help in this state and outside of this state who said they would come and help us. i want to thank the other states and communities who we put out a call for help. we got help from all across the country. it reminds me in that post 9/11 time when we needed help and other communities in the northeast needed help. people came from across the nation and they wanted to help. they just showed up. that's what happened here. and when i talk about seeing the best and the worst of people at a time of crisis, that outpouring of generosity i'm sure you felt the same, gave us such a sense of confidence that we're not in it alone.

humanity and the love of the american people was there for us. i said, we need your help today. but new yorkers also never forget. thank you for the help. we will be there when you need us. we will be there when anyone needs us. right now, our neighbors in massachusetts are looking at an increase in cases. i spoke to governor charlie baker yesterday. they may need 400 ventilators. we know how important ventilators are. if their numbers keep going up and if they have to scramble -- i said, you were there for us and we're going to be there for you. if they need 400 ventilators, we have identified them and we will bring them over on 24 hours notice. we wish them well. anything they need, we're going to be there. the recent news is good. we are on the other side of the

plateau, and the up numbers are coming down. that's good news only compared to the terrible news that we were living with, which is that constant increase. remember, you still have 1,300 people who walked into the hospitals yesterday testing positive. it's no time to get cocky and it's no time to get arrogant. right? we still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do. this virus has been ahead of us every step of the way. we have been playing catchup from day one in this situation. so it is no time to relax. this is only halftime in this entire situation. we showed that we can control the beast. when you close down, you can actually slow that infection rate. but it's only halftime. we still have to make sure that we keep that beast under

control, we keep that infection rate down, we keep that hospitalization rate down as we now get -- all get very eager to get on with life and move on. it's not over. we have a second phase. in this second phase, first do no harm, don't jeopardize what you have already accomplished by seeing that infection rate increase. we have to be smarter, especially when it comes to the new front tiier of testing. then when we talk about rebuilding, we have to talk about not just rebuilding but let's learn from this horrific experience and let's take these lessons forward. and how do we build back better than before? i don't want to have gone all through this and then just say, we are reopening. no, no, no.

we have to open for a better future than we have ever had. and we have to learn from this. as we go through this, remember -- i know people are eager to get on with life. we have slowed the infection rate down to .9%. .9% means one person infects .9% of a person. less than one. that means the virus is slowing. if one person is infecting 1.2 people, the virus is increasing and is an epidemic and an outbreak and is out of control. so we have a very small margin of error here as we navigate going forward. any plan that is going to start to reopen the economy has to be based on data and that means it has to be based on testing. this is a new world for all of us, testing. how do you get testing up to

scale? how do you get it up to scale quickly? how do you find out where we really are right now in terms of this virus? you have all these scientists and these experts who are basically trying to extrapolate from the data. we don't know how many people were infected, how many people had coronavirus but self-resolved. we don't really know. we haven't been able to do testing on that large a scale. but we're going to start. we're going to start here in the state of new york with antibody testing. antibody testing means you test a person to find out if they have the antibodies which they would have if they were infected with the coronavirus. we're going to do that in the most aggressive way in the nation. we're going to sample people in the state, thousands of people in the state across the state to find out if they had the antibodies. that will tell us for the first

time what percent of the population actually has had the coronavirus and is now at least short-term immune to the virus. this will be the first true snapshot of what we're really dealing with. we're going to be doing that over the next week in the new york state depth of health. there's another set of tests which are called diagnostic testing. diagnostic testing is whether a person is positive or negative. we're coming up to scale on this. even though it's very, very hard. northwell is leading the parade on this. i just looked at some of the technology they are bringing in. all these different manufacturers who made different machines to run different tests. the number of big manufacturers and northwell is bringing as many as they can. this has to be brought to scale. nobody has done testing at this

level ever. we have do this in partnership with the federal government. there's all sorts of logistical questions and supply chain questions and people can't get certain chemicals they need to do tests and the chemicals are made in other countries. so we have to do this with the federal government i spoke to the head of the cdc yesterday. he was very smart and very informed. we talked about how we can do this together. talk about being smart, the federal government is talking about passing another piece of legislation which would help in the reopening. they want to help small businesses and that's great. they also have to help state governments and local governments, which have not been supported in the previous legislation. everyone is saying, tait's up t states to come up with a reopening plan, it's up to the governors. fine. that's true and right and legal.

but the governors have to have resources. yes, you have to help small businesses, the airlines, all these private sector interests as well as citizens. if you don't help the state government and local government, how are we supposed to have finances to reopen? if you don't give state and local government support, we're the ones who support schools, we support the police, we support the fire, we support the hospital workers. we support the transit workers. if you starve state and local government, all that means is, we have to turn around and reduce funding to the people who we are funding. if we don't get federal assistance, you are looking at education cuts of close to 50% in the state of new york where school districts would only get half of the aid they got from the state last year. you are talking about cuts to hospitals from the state.

how ludicrous would it be to now cut hospital funding from state government? the governor governors, democra republicans, in this crazy political environment where you can't get them to agree on anything, all the governors agree and have said to washington, make sure you fund the states in any next bill you pass. and we asked for $500 billion. again, on a non-partisan basis. we also must remember as we go forward what we have done so well thus far. the mutuality and discipline that we have shown. i have many school districts in the state, over 700 school districts. they are calling saying they want to open up their local schools. they want to make these decisions. local officials are calling.

we have beaches, parks, businesses, we want to make decisions. i understand the pressure that the local school districts are under. i understand the pressure that the local officials are under. i understand the mounting political pressure. people see those numbers come down. they are like, okay, let's go. let me get out of my house. i get it. but we have to stay smart and we have to stay united. now is no time, as i said, to get arrogant. we're working with our regional states, our partners, new jersey, connecticut, the surrounding states. we're coordinating with them and we have to continue to do that. the weather is getting warmer. the numbers are coming down. cabin fever is getting worse. i believe that's going to be a documented disease when this is over, cabin fever. we have to stay smart and we have to stay coordinated.

we have been working with the new jersey and connecticut because whatever one state does affects other states. right? you live in nassau, suffolk, new york city, you can be in new jersey, you can be in connecticut in a matter of minutes. it's very important to plan accordingly. it's not that we can be on the same page on everything. but at least let's know what each other is doing. for example, on state parks, we're coordinating what our policies are. you can see people go from one state to another. i was in albany yesterday. talked to a couple who drove up from queens for thai food. i said, you came up for thai food from queens? that's a 2 1/2 hour ride. they said, we just -- we had to get out of the house. i said, for thai food?

in queens they have very good thai food. i'm from queens. it shows how people need to get out and do something. we get it. new york state parks are open. new jersey, they're closed. connecticut, they're open. new york, our beaches are closed. in new jersey, the state beaches are closed. some of the local beaches are open. connecticut, they are open. mar. stayi ining coordinated is important. it's important within the state. i get the political pressure that everybody is under. i get the political pressure that local officials are under. we have to be smart and we have to be coordinated. people have to have the best government from government officials in the state of new york. government matters today in a

way it has not mattered in decades. it's important that government sends the right signal and one message and there's no confusion. because if people don't have confidence in government right now, if they think there's chaos or confusion or politics, that would be a terrible message to send. we have done a great job as government officials. all of us, democrat, republican, state and local. we have to keep doing it. now is not the time to send mixed messages. also on a very parochial level, i get that -- the conversations i have had, people feel political pressure. here is the simple answer. the state's emergency powers now govern in this emergency. blame me. blame me. somebody is complaining about a beach, somebody is complaining

about whatever, businesses open, schools open, blame me. it's true, it's right, it's the state law. i don't have any issue with that. blame me. also, as we're planning the reopening, let's set the bar a little higher. let's all start to think about this now. what did we learn during this? personally, what did we learn, socially what did we learn? collectively, what did we learn? how do we incorporate that into our reopening? right? how do we have a better health care system when we reopen, a better transportation system, better telecommuting, a smarter telemedicine program? better technology in education. how do we have more social equity? you can see the effect of this

disease and how it reinforced the disparity and inequity in society. how do we remedy that? how do are we more cohesive as a community for having gone through this? right? so it's not just reopen. it's not just build back. it's advance, use this as a moment in time where they look back, when they write the history books and they say, boy, they went through a terrible time but they learned from it and they improved from it and they moved forward. we had 9/11, yes, we built back. we built back different. we built back smarter. we had hurricane sandy. devastated long island. i was governor. i didn't say we want to replace. i said we're going to learn how to do a new grid system. we're going to learn how to do better infrastructure. and we did. long island today is better for having gone through hurricane sandy, as terrible as that was. we have to do the same thing

here. how do we come back even better? the long and the short of it is, thank you to all new yorkers for all the good work. to our health care workers, a special thank you. to the police, fire, the transit workers, you know, the economy has not been closed down. all the essential services have still been functioning. you still could go to the grocery store and get food. lord knows, you could go to a health care institution and get health care. the transportation work, the buses worked. all these people who kept everything working. we thank them from the bottom of our hearts. also remember we still have more to do. new yorkers know that, because new yorkers are tough. but tough doesn't mean just tough. tough is easy. it's tough but smart but disciplined but unified but

loving. that's who we are as new yorkers. last point on a personal point, i have my daughter mariah with me. she is the third daughter for me. she just came home, if you will. she was quarantined. now i have all three daughters with me. they can't appreciate this but it's such a comfort to me personally to have them home. you know, when your child is not at home, especially at a difficult time like this, you are always wondering where are they, are they okay, are they doing what's right. every instinct is you want to be able to protect them. when they're not there, you have this constant hole in your heart. right? this constant question as you are going through the day. you are trying to do everything you have to do but you still have this question in the back of your mind, where is mariah, how is she, so that they are now

all three with me. gives me a great sense of comfort. in this crazy situation we're in, but for the craziness, i would never have my three daughters with me again. 25, 25, 22 years old. the last thing they want to do is hang out with pop. right? they have places to go. people to see. they are taking life by the horns. so i get this beautiful silver lining in the midst of this hell where my daughters are with me again. we get to celebrate family and we get to bring back traditions and we get to enjoy each other and have really in-depths conversations that we haven't had in years. reconnect in a way we haven't had the opportunity in years. today is sunday. i come from an italian-american

household where we have had a great tradition on sundays, family had to come together at the table. you had to be there. they called it dinner but it started at 2:00 in the afternoon. it was somewhere in there. i don't know why they called it dinner. everybody was at the table. spaghetti and meatballs every sunday. i started my tomato sauce before i left. we're going to go back. we're going to sit at the table. have our spaghetti and meatballs on sunday. i know what i'm going to talk to them about. my daughters -- mariah brought her boyfriend who is also here. the boyfriend is very nice and we like the boyfriend. advice to fathers. the answer on what you think of the boyfriend is always, i like the boyfriend, always. because there's only two options. either you like boy friend in which case you say you like the

boyfriend or you don't like the boyfriend. but you can never say you don't like the boyfriend. i learned this lesson the hard way. otherwise, it triggers nds. it's natural defiance syndrome. it's not documented but it's a psychological condition where if you say as a father, i don't like him, natural defiance syndrome kicks in. then they like the boyfriend more because he is opposed by the father. the answer has to be, i like the boyfriend. in this case, i actually like the boyfriend. even if you don't like the boyfriend, the answer can only be that i like the boyfriend. we're going to be at dinner with the boyfriend. we're going to have our spaghetti and our meatballs. they won't eat the spaghetti and the meatballs. whether i co when i cook it, they won't eat it. they move it around the dish. that's all i can ask.

i'm going to tell them -- i'm going to recall to them how important that meal was on sundays to have the family together, to take the time to sit and to talk and to reconnect. people talk about the italians and they love the food. yeah, they love the food. the food was just a magnet to get the family to the table. it was the device to get people to spend two hours at the table. that's where you talked and you went through the week. i used to do it at my grandfather's house. my father, mother, kids, all the siblings would go to my grandfath grandfather's house. my grandfather was andrea. at the end of the meal, my grandfather would always say -- he was at the head of the table. he would say, okay, that was my vacation. then he would get up and they would do whatever they were doing. i never really understand whood

he meant. i said to my father, his son, i said what did grandpa mean, that was my vacation? your grandfather never had a day off. your grandfather worked seven days a week. he ran a grocery store, deli in jamaica. he worked seven days a week. he was saying, that was his vacation. he never took a vacation. everybody would take a vacation on tv and the tv commercials. that was his vacation. the three hours at the table for dinner with his family, that was his vacation. then he would go back to run the store. you think of how our immigrants work in this country. wherever the immigrants are from, what that whole immigrant philosophy and drive does for us. i will end where i started. you think of all the essential workers. we had to stay at home. i'm tired of staying at home.

yeah, think of all the people, all the essential workers who had to go out there every day and work in the middle of this. who frankly would have much rather stay home. they didn't know what the virus was. they are out there working with the public, exposing themselves. why do we have a higher rate of infection among african-americans, latinos? who are the essential workers? we have a higher rate of infection among the essential workers. because they were out there driving the buses and the trains. and they were out there running the hospitals and the emergency rooms and the nurses and the police officers. they didn't get to stay home. they got sicker and they died more than anyone else.

because they were there honoring their responsibility to their job and to public service. let's remember that. let's remember them. yeah, we're all going through a tough time and it is a tough time. but a lot of people have shown a lot of courage and a lot of beauty and they have had very tough lives. let's appreciate them at the same time. any questions for myself or michael or melissa? no questions for mariah because that would be trouble. i'm just kidding. [ inaudible ] which -- i don't know why the covid tracker would not be up to

date. that's the first i heard it. i will check. it should be up to date. because the numbers i just gave you are the up to date up ins. i can check why they don't have that on their website. [ inaudible ] the fda has approved the state's antibody test. that's what we're going to be rolling out this week. now that we have the approved test, we're going to be rolling it out to do the largest survey of any state population that has been done. we will take thousands tests -- antibody tests over this next week all across the state to give us a real snapshot, a real baseline of exactly how many people were infected by

coronavirus and have the antibodies. so we'll have the first real statistical number on exactly where we are as a population. they talk about herd immunity, we talk about infection rate. we're all trying to extrapolate from that. but we have not had hard data on where we are. that's just one of the testing. it's diagnostic testing -- are you positive or negative? how do you do that fast? how do you do that large? antibody testing tells you if you had the virus and are past it. this whole world of testing is complicated. all these different manufacturers make a very big, expensive machine. then each manufacturer has their own test. you have to buy that test from that manufacturer. then you have to buy the chemicals that go with that test.

northwell must have seven, ten different machines from different manufacturers that are all running different tests. each one of those tests -- they're all for covid. but you have to go back to that manufacturer and get all the new supplies to run the tests. and that is what gets very complicated. i go back and forth with the federal government on this. we have to figure it out. the states can do the tests. but when i go back to the manufacturers, they will say, i can't find the reagents, the chemicals that are used in the test. well, how do you get more reagents? i have to get them from china, from this country, from that this country. i can't help them do that. i can't do an international supply chain. that's where the federal government has to help, because

no state can do that. and the same manufacturers who are selling to me, to new york, they're selling to chicago, to california, to all these other states. so everyone has to do their part. i know it's hard and i know it's complex. but everything we're doing here is hard and everything is complex. >> governor, what's at stake in terms of getting this decision rolling with reopening america? you've got people on the streets in cities across the country saying coronavirus is a scam. you have the president tweeting out to liberate states. what's your experience in new york shown you? what would you say about that? >> i will respond to your question. i will ask michael to follow-up afterwards on the testing and the machines we saw and how that works. look, nobody can say. anyone can say anything. god bless america. that's what my grandfather would say, god bless america, first

amendment, anyone can say anything. so, yeah, anyone can say anything. right? it's conspiracy theories, everybody has a theory, daniel patrick moynihan, god rest his soul, anybody can have an opinion, not anyone can his sou anyone can have their own position or facts. some people say coronavirus is a hoax. yeah, god bless america. 600 people died two days ago. 500 people. those are real deaths. that's real. that's a fact. that's a fact, okay. 16,000 people in hospitals who test positive for coronavirus. that is a fact. i don't care what you think or what your opinion is, that is a fact. so you can't say it's a hoax. because that is a fact, okay. so that's a fact and i'll leave that at that. people are anxious, they see the

numbers coming down. you exhale a little bit and they should exhale. look, i was afraid. nobody said we could stop the growth of the virus. people said we think maybe you can if you do socially distance and close down and do masks. but nobody said we know for sure. so my fear was always we'll do all this and the virus will still increase. that would have been a really bad place to be. you did everything you could, you closed everything down, and the virus continued to spread. that would have been really frightening. that didn't happen. we controlled the beast. we apexed, we plateaued, it is coming down the other side. that is good news. okay, so we exhale. we can control the beast.

but the beast is still alive. we did not kill the beast. and the beast can rise up again. we know that. this is a temporary reduction in the virus rate. the virus rate is wholly dependent on what you do. you tell me what you do today, i'll tell you the infection rate three days from now. you tell me what you do today as a society and i'll tell you how many people are going to walk into a hospital three days from today. it is purely contingent on what we do. well, the numbers are down. we have to get out of the house, we have to get back to work, i need a paycheck. i get it. but you go back to where we were, infection rate will go up and the hospitalization rate will go right back up again. so all this with a calibration, how do you start to reopen, start to increase activity, start to bring people out, make

sure they social distancing, et cetera, and make sure you are doing it intelligently. so you start to reopen but watch that hospitalization rate and that infection rate because if that starts going up again, and you don't immediately correct or you made such a dramatic movement that the virus infection spreads, you could go right back to where you were in one week's time. and if we went through all of this and lost all of these people and forced essential workers and hospital workers to do unbelievable tasks to get us through this crisis and we recreate the crisis, then shame on us. michael, do you want to speak about testing and the machine and the reagent and the supply chain. >> yeah, the governor said that the diagnostic testing --

[ inaudible ]. and we're expanding that testing capability. and then you the -- which is [ inaudible ] and we're doing some of the antibody testing. over the next week, this is at northwell alone, with their cooperation with other systems, we anticipate 10,000 antibody tests a day. [ inaudible ] 3,000 tests a day. and we're also working with the other health systems in the region. all of the other health systems. we collaborate. we have every other day meetings, all of the lab people from the various systems are getting together. we met this morning.

so all collaborating to make sure that we expand the capacity and the antibody testing and the anticipation is that we'll be able to do hundreds of thousands of tests and again across the state. it does mean that we have to keep one side of the -- working on diagnostic testing and other whole side of the lab changing or building the capacity to develop the antibody testing. the goal is to do the maximum amount of testing as we possibly can because that is the way that we can -- the economy can get to be reopened and health care can get to be reopened. if you don't do the testing, as the governor said, and you make too quick of a move to open too quickly, then you walk into the scenario the governor just described. that is one of the most dangerous things we could ever possibly do. >> thank you, michael. remember the context here. we have accomplished what no one thought could be accomplished.

the top experts, the cdc, the president's coronavirus task force, they all had multiples of more infections projected and multiples of more deaths projected. cdc, coronavirus white house task force, they were talking about 2 million people hospitalized in this country. just a month ago. 2 million people. do you know how many hospital beds we have in this country? 1 million. they're lowest matt w-- estimat was for the highest capacity for the nation on march 13th. that is what the top experts were predicting here in new york state, mckenzie, cornell, columbia, the gates' funded operation, they all had multiples of what we did. this is a great success story.

on everyone's behalf. people weren't to angry and frustrated right now. this is a great triumph, what the federal government did, what the states. what the health care workers did, the way americans responded and acted responsibly. it is better than any of the predictors. the president is right when he gets up there and says the models had many more people dying. the president is right. all the experts said that. so this was heroic efforts that changes that curve. god bless america. but don't underappreciate what you just did. and don't go backwards. that would be a real mistake. >> i have a three part.

weddings, funerals and the [ inaudible ]. so weddings about clerks only being able to marry people now that -- that you're allowed to marry again and secondly to alleviate bodies coming into funeral homes and [ inaudible ] the president looking forward. >> i've taken a lot of actions during this period of time. the action that probably has caused me the most amount of grief is what i said about marriages. marriages, you can now do. can you get a marriage license online and we've authorized marriages online. by any licensed or legal official who can perform a marriage. so i suggested, no one has any

excuses any more. now it is a simple yes or no. will you marry me? simple yes or no. you lose all of the possible excuses. well, i have to set a wedding date, i have to do this. you could do it tomorrow. it is all online. you could get your certificate and your license and do online. a judge could do it, any official could do it. so there is no excuses any more. yes or no, will you marry me. i got all sorts of bad, ugly comments about that. melissa, i'll ask her if she knows anything about the funeral homes. do i have faith in the president. what the federal government did working with states as i just said was a phenomenal accomplishment. we bent the curve. we flattened the curve. government did it. people did it but government facilitates people's actions, right. we have had to double the hospital capacity in new york state.

that is what all of the experts said. president brought in the army corp of engineers, they built 2,500 beds at javits and northwell operating, it is a phenomenal accomplishment. close to a thousand people have gone through javits. luckily we didn't need the 2,500 beds but all of the projections said we did need it and more by the way. these were extraordinary acts of mobilization and the federal government stepped up and was a great partner and i'm the first one to say it. we needed help and they were there. state and local governments were fantastic. the hospital system was fantastic. new yorkers were fawn. and that is an undenial fact. just look at what they said was going to happen. cdc, coronavirus task force, corn el, mckenzie, all of them and they had a line up here and the actual line is down here.

what do you owe the variance to? heroic efforts on behalf of people as facilitated by government. federal and state. so that was phase one. now we have to go forward to phase two. big challenges are going to be testing. it will not be done perfectly. we can't bring it to scale in this period of time, i will tell you that. but we could do better working together than working apart. and that's the federal/state partnership. i will do my part as a governor and other governors will do their part. federal government is involved in testing, we had a whole presentation at the last presidential briefing. we have to work together and do the best we can and we will. and i have faith that we will because we have in the past. do you know anything about funeral homes. >> the governor signed an executive order to allow funeral directors either retired or from out of state to be able to be licensed immediately in new york to help with the backlog.

on the weddings, yesterday the executive order allowed clerks to perform the weddings remotely and today the governor is signing a new executive order to allow anybody who is licensed to perform weddings so it won't just be limited to clerks and on the website it will be updated today, the covid website. >> i'm also available for wedding, online services. special vows that i do. do you know that. >> i would have assumed it. >> let's take one more question. >> just a follow up about the president and i have one other unrelated question. you alluded on your press conference that he's right on ventilators and testing and governors must step up and get the job done and we'll about you all of the way. did you speak to the president yesterday, today, about this and has there been any movement for re-agents for the diagnostic

testing. >> we've been talking about -- i haven't had a conversation with the president in the past day about this. but we've had conversations about it and the president is right, he's right. states have to do what they have to step up on testing and the federal government has to step up on testing. the federal government is involved in testing. and they did a whole presentation at the president's briefing on testing. and what they're doing on testing. and what they're doing on helping the supply chain, et cetera, and that's great. and between the states working with the federal government, we'll do the best job we can. what was the president's tweet exactly? just so i -- >> it said just like i was right on ventilators, our country is now the king of ventilators other countries are calling asking for help. i am right on testing. governors must be able to step up and get the job done and we'll be with you all the way.

>> we'll be with you all of the way. great. states must do their part and the federal government must do its part. perfect. that is what is called partnership. agree. >> and a follow up on the testing, i know initially there was some rationing of diagnostic testing, what is it going to look like for antibody testing and who will get those and who will be able to get the antibody testing once that gets ramped up? >> the antibody testing that we're doing now, this week, is a random sample. so it's into the like testing where somebody can ask to be tested. it has to be a random sample. that is conducted throughout the state. thousands of people get tested. so we know this percentage of the population had the antibodies. that is not a test where a person can call up and say i want to be tested or go to a place. that has to be done on a random sample basis. in terms of the antibody testing

being heading to the diagnostic testing, we now have an antibody test that the state can perform. we can do about 2,000 tests per day for the state. that's about 14,000 per week. sounds like a big number. it's not that big of a number in the total context of state of 19 million people. also when you talk about testing, just to give it relative proportionality, we have tested in this state more than any state in the united states. we have tested more than any country has tested, okay, on a per capita basis. so nobody is better at testing than we are. with all of the testing we've done since this started, 500,000 tests. wow, it's a lot.

not really. it's been a month and we did 500,000. at that rate, this goes on for three months, we would have tested 1.5 million people. we have 9 million people in the work force. we have 19 million people in the population. so we have to increase that rate. and that's why the partnership with the federal government to get the re-agents, et cetera, is so important. and that the federal government provides the states with resources to do this. i mean, you have the president saying 15 times it is up to the governors, it is up to the governors, it's up to the governors and then they pass a piece of legislation that gives you know what to zero. zilch. nada. niente. whatever language you want to say it. nothing. but then how are the states supposed to do this. and then you know what happens?

i'll tell you exactly what happens. the state now has about a $15 billion deficit. somewhere between $10 billion and $15 billion deficit. i'm going to have to -- i don't have any funding to do what i normally do. i normally fund schools. you'll see a 50% cut in education. you'll see a cut to hospitals. in the midst of all of this. i give local governments aid. they pay the police officers. they pay the firefighters. they pay the bus drivers, public transit. those are the essential functions that are now working. how you could not fund that. well we want to fund small business. great, fund small business, fund the airlines, fund whatever you want, but how do you not fund the state government that you know is in charge of reopening this entire nation, right. so we have to be smart.

i want to thank michael dowling again, and northwell and all of the people not just for today's hospitality but for importantly for all of the beautiful work that they have done. thank you very much. >> okay, ifeveryone, we've been listen to andrew cuomo for his briefing in the last hour. welcome to the second hour here of weekends with alex witt. thanks for joining us. and before we get to what we planned for this hour, i want to bring in dr. lippy brour. and from a medical perspective given that you're a internal medical physician, let's talk about the numbers that we've seen. a week ago, we were looking at 700 plus people dying a day in new york state. it moved down to 600 people a couple of days ago. and today 500 of people passing away. when you count each and every one, it is a brutal thing to contemplate. that said, there is a curve that is moving down ward. you heard the governor talk about antibody testing.

dr. rory, what are your thoughts in terms of the implementation of antibody testing to keeping us on this downward trajectory? are there things about this that you fear we could still head back in the opposite direction that we don't want to go in? >> hey, alex, it is good to be with you again. yes, so there is some reassuring patterns that we're seeing, right. so not only is the curve flattening but we're seeing a downturn which is good news. we've been anticipated this for a long, long time now. but it is really important for the public to remember as governor cuomo said that these numbers, this flattening and downturn is happening at a critically high level. and yes, we're measuring the deaths and it is 700 now coming down to 500 and the trend is good but that is still, as you pointed out, 500 men and women, new yorkers whose lives are now gone. that is nothing short of tragic. that said, the burden that the

doctors and nurses and front line health care workers are facing is still extremely high. so we have to be really mindful of that. and the real reason the numbers are going down is because of the aggressive physical distancing and hand washing and face coverings that we're doing, all of the preventative measures are working. >> so there is nothing to let up on that front? >> if we let on any of the preventative measures i promise you that curve will go back up. we can't afford to be relaxed on that. >> we have to get used to the gloves and mask and keeping them on our face for quite sometime to come. dr. lippy rory, thank you for staying with me through the news conference with the governor. there are 733,000 confirmed cases across this country. more than 38,000 people have died. and you heard moments ago, the governor announcing the number of hospitalizations here in new york state, it is going down. new york has been the epicenter of this health crisis in this country. on capitol hill, sources are

telling nbc news that congressional democrats and the white house are close to an interim relief bill. lawmakers say it could come as soon as tonight. >> we have common ground. our cares one package is something that we worked together in a bipartisan way, springing from that and making it more effective and stronger so that more people are benefiting from it and protected by it. i think we're very close to -- to agreement. >> i'm hopeful that we could reach an agreement that the senate can pass this tomorrow and that the house could take it up on tuesday. and wednesday we be back up and running. >> and a new nbc news/wall street journal poll shows americans support stay at home restrictions. 50% say they are more worried about the fallout from loosening restrictions too quickly than of the economic consequences. let's go to monica alba more on all of that and with another

welcome to you. there is also the economy, the president's approval rating. there is so much in this particular poll. what are americans saying about all of it? >> reporter: yes, alex, at the center of this, a dual crisis. it is a financial one as well as public health. and when you look at the center and the decision-making coming from the white house, our new nbc news wall street journal show that 44% of -- excuse me, 44% approve of his job so far. while 52% say they do not. and that is pretty much unchanged from march when 51% gave him a thumbs down and in terms of the economy what is significant is that 45% of those surveyed said they had a poor view of the economy which came to a screeching halt last month and only 22% had what they called an excellent view and that is significant because the president is clearly motivated to get the economy restarted but

it is also notable because it is the highest percentage of respondents we've seen calling the economy poor since 2012 when it comes to our own nbc news/wall street journal polling. as we start to reopen in the coming weeks, one of the most critical questions is testing and how that may work on the state level with so many governors calling for federal help and support in terms of making those plans. but when we talked this morning and listened to some of the nation's governors, they said they still want more guidance on that front. and speakyer nancy pelosi and mike pence also had differing views on how they might approach the reopening in the couple of weeks. take a listen to some sound from the sunday shows. >> the key that opens the door to the economy is testing, testing, testing. we haven't done it right. as dr. fauci said, if we proceed the right way we can do that. but we haven't. >> we have to make sure that the

cure isn't worse than the disease because the reality is that for all of the sacrifices the american people have made, sacrifices that literally have saved lives, the truth is that there are real costs including the health and well being of the american people to continue to go through the shutdown that we're in today. >> reporter: the president has said for weeks now that staying at home leads to death also implying that people who are out of work and eager to get back into that work force are also suffering from real-life conferences. and governors like andrew cuomo who you just saw in the briefing continue to ask the president for more guidance on federal testing and help like the defense production act which we've heard from different governors suggesting that would help with re-agents and manufacturing other critical supplies on testing which we have not seen used by the president on that specific area, alex. i think the calls will continue on that front as testing takes front and center this week.

>> absolutely, monica alba from the white house. thank you for that. so as we take a look at 2020 and what is new today, which is the trump campaign reportedly efforting a new strategy going into november. and it has a lot to do with china. "the washington post" reporting trump campaign concludes there is more to be gained by attacking biden than trying to promote the president's pandemic response. and with me now is the author, one of them, of that piece, michael shearer political from "the washington post." thanks for staying with us. i know you were here with the governor. and this campaign is trying to link kline with biden. how so? what is this about? >> that is right. so the campaign has found in their own polls over the recent weeks, some concerning numbers about a growing number of americans are w.h.o. are open to voting for biden and some erosion in polling for president trump among key groups and so they've been searching for a way to message this and there is

division among his aides. some are saying a positive message, showk his role as a wartime president, sort of owning his response to the coronavirus pandemic. but the campaign leadership has settled on a different strategy and that is based on polls that show more than three quarters of americans blame china in part for pandemic so they're going to try to tie vice president biden to china by going back over his 40, 50-year career and looking at past comments he's made by china. this is something the outside groups supporting president trump has already embraced and their have been adds cut and i expect to see them unless they change course in the coming days. >> so the numbers like in the nbc news/wall street journal poll, trump is trailing biden on the response. if you look at the numbers right there. how much do these numbers in a

snapshot like this affect trumpian campaign strategy overall and it is liable to change based on another poll. are they paying that close attention? >> i think it is already affected their strategy pretty dramatically. the virus has taken away what was a plan to do what president obama did to mitt romney in 2012 in the spring which is come out hard, aggressive, spend a lot of money to define your opponent. they haven't been able to do that yet. it is a few weeks since vice president biden has sort of sealed up the democratic nomination and they're making this move and part of that is the discomfort with negative messaging at a time that the rest of the country is focused on something much more pressing. >> mm-hmm. >> and i think both campaigns believe which candidate is best

positioned to help the country recover from where we are now and so that conversation will shift over the coming months. but it will very often go back to what is happened over the last several months and the economic pain which is almost certain to last into november. >> so a couple of questions here. is there a quantitative way to look at what the president is doing in the long, sometimes somewh somewhat meandering press conference on a daily basis, how that is playing into the strategy. are the news conferences helping the president or are they not helping the president? >> well, so there is a debate over that as well among his team. clearly parts of the news conferences are helping him. he is dominating the american imagination right now because he is in front of them for two hours plus aday. vice president biden who doesn't really have much of a campaign at this point, he won the primary, with a very small operation has been struggling to get equal or close to the same

amount of air time. and i think that the trump campaign sees that as an advantage and the biden campaign sees that as a trump advantage as well. that said, there is this part of this election fought among suburban swing voters in the key swing states and these are the same voters who were repelled by the president and the flip side is the president's reelection strategy depending on bringing on noncollege educated white voters who didn't vote in 2018 or 2016 and some of the theatrics we see in the briefing room could help him in that regard. i mean the president has always benefited and his opponents underestimated him by sort of dominating the airwaves whenever he's trying to advance himself.

and even if there are short-term setbacks, it tends to work well for him over the long-term. >> okay. michael, thank you so much for being with me on this. we're getting some pictures that we want to take everybody to and that is san diego, california, everybody. these are protesters of the state's stay-at-home orders. these folks in san diego are saying no thanks. we want to be out and about. if we look closely, we'll have to look and see. you see a fair number of them with masks not all certainly. gloves seem to be less hon display there. but folks are -- are tired of staying indoors and they think it is about time to get out and get back to work, earn a paycheck. this will fly in the face of the advice that governor gavin newsom of california has given his residents there of the golden state. the most populous state in this country. they have managed to do what new york has not been able to do in terms of the per capita

population, those able to avoid getting covid-19. again the most populous state in the nation. but the governor was able to get on things early, by mid-march, the 15th of march he issued the stay-at-home orders and closing down restaurants and movie theaters and large gathering entities and able to make it work to some degree to him. every loss of a life a tragedy and that being said california has fared better than new york. right now i'm joined by ohio democratic congressman tim ryan. welcome to you. what do you have to say when you look at voters and constituents of the golden state that say we're tired of this and it is a month plus and we want to violate the stay-at-home orders and get back to work. what do you have to say to them? >> well, it is probably a lot

better to get outside in san diego than in ohio right now. but as the weather starts to warm, we all feel that way. there is nobody in america that doesn't want to go to a movie, go to a concert, go to a football game or a baseball game. but the reality is we are citizens of a country. we are -- belong to a community in which with that comes certain responsibilities and when you live with other people. and the responsibility here is to abide by these stay-at-home orders to the extent you can. there are so many people making sacrifices right now on the front lines of our health care system. think of them. think of what happens if we go out and we spread this again across the country. we go through this whole thing again. that doesn't make any sense. i think it is completely irresponsible. i think the president is stoking this libber at virginia, liberate all of the states. complete

completely irresponsible. he's asking people to violate state law because the governors have the stay-at-home orders order i think it is irresponsible. >> part of what may be behind the sentiment besides the weather and not cooped up at home is because people are concerned about the economy and their own purse strings and bank accounts and the extent to keep livelihoods going. here is something i know with the millions of americans who already received this one-time federal relief check in the initial $2 trillion stimulus package, you've introduced legislation that would pay what is it all qualifying americans, you have to be 16 years old and you get 2,000 every month? >> yeah. >> talk about this plan. >> yeah. it's congressman ro khanna and i, congressman from northern california. $2,000 a month for every citizen over the age of 16. the income cap is a couple that makes less than $260,000 a year.

we are not addressing the brutal economic impact that is happening on the ground. part of the protests you see are because of that. the deep, deep concern of how people are going to be able to make ends meet. and we can't be timid with this. a $1,200 one-time check isn't going to do diddly for the vast majority of people. what is that going to do for somebody in new york or california or a bigger city, let alone most people out there working. so i believe if we're going to, one, kind of brace people today so they could pay their mortgage and car payment and other credit card debt they may have and also have them stable so that when we do get to the testing and we do unravel the stay-at-home orders, that people actually have economic wherewithal to go back and help us jump start the economy. and yeah, is this going to cost a lot of money? it is. we're also spending lots of

money now. but the reality is if we don't support working class people, then the costs are going to be greater because the economic stagnation is going to last longer and if we don't get this wage continuity right, we're going to be screwed. >> how many fellow folks there on capitol hill do you think agree with this? you're talking about $2,000 a month provided by the government to almost every adult american that would qualify there. do you think people on capitol hill are going to agree with this and what do you think it will take to get it to the president's desk? >> well, we've got a huge push on social media. the andrew yang gang who is obviously for the universal basic income, this is not universal but a huge push from working class people. i get a huge response from this every do a facebook live or on tv. this is resonating with people because they need the help. and again, nobody bats an eye when we get a huge corporation like the airline industry a

bailout and then they turn around and united gets rid of all of the workers. or there is huge tax incentives in here for real estate people, high end real estate people and we just did a $2.3 trillion tax cut a couple of years ago that president trump pushed where 83% went to the wealthiest people in the country. nobody batted an eye at that. when you turn around and a guy like me from youngstown, ohio, or ro khanna, say what about the working class people and the question is how much will this cost. this is going to cost. we're borrowing money at about 0% interest right now and if we can't help the workers now, i don't know when we'll come to grips with the fact that workers in america need help and they need it now. >> okay. congressman tim ryan from ohio, former presidential candidate. good to talk with you. thanks for staying with us through the news conference with the governor and again we've been discussing his plans potentially for paying every

american 16 and older who qualifies in terms of how much me make for a $2,000 a month stimulus during the duration of the pandemic. we're looking at san diego, california, where you have stay at home protesters who say we've had it. we're going to defy what gavin newsom is saying and we want to get out. there is frustration on all sides. and millions are out of the work because of the coronavirus. you have people struggling to feed families. there is a nonprofit called feeding america and predicted more than 17 million people will become foodin secure during this crisis and one of the most hard hit stages new jersey. my colleague lindsay riser is joining me from newark. i understand that you're outside of a church working to feed the community there. what is happening? >> reporter: yeah, food banks

have been stretched thin and this church in newark is no thin. in fact, they were supposed to be dolling out food for another 15 minutes but they have stopped because they've given it all away. before this pandemic started they would open up the food pantry two sundays a month and feed about 75 families. now they are open every single sunday and they are doubling that number every sunday. 150 usually and today they helped 200 families. the pastor here tells me that congregates have been laid off or furloughs and they're helping families fill refrigerator and pantry with things that the grocery stores don't have like milk. i talked to that volunteer why she and her husband come out here sunday and i sbopoke to a furloughed worker who came here to grab a box today. >> i believe this is a calling for us. i don't know how many people believe in god. but for us, we do. and we believe in the strength that he's given us and that if

it's going to happen, it's going to happen. but we always had a compassion for people. so if this is the need and where we're supposed to be placed, this is where we want to be. >> when you don't know when your next check is going to come, to have a decent meal, i could truly tell you i'm a god fearing person, i haven't had a whole meal on my table recently. and that is the honest god truth. >> reporter: and she is a custodian at one of the school districts and furloughed for two weeks hasn't gotten the stimulus relief check because she never signed up for direct deputy. the and she was there for help today. >> how can people find out where they could get help and find food in their neighborhoods? >> reporter: so i asked a

volunteer here today who was actually picking up boxes and going around to different people in her neighborhood. she's trying to find people on facebook who need food, maybe seniors or people who have contracted covid-19 and can't leave their house and i said how do you know where the food pantries are and she said this is word of mouth. there are resources but you could show up to one of your local fo local food pantries and they know where the next one is and that is how they get food to so many people. >> lindsay riser, outside of the church in newark, nblg new jersey. there are more than 730,000 cases in the u.s. rather 38,000 people have died and the death toll in europe as we check that out, it has now surpassed 100,000. more than 500 people died just today. we're giving you a look at the scene of venice, italy. empty streets and buildings. that country remains on

lockdown. at that famous square we're looking at. the country is beginning to make progress flattening out the curve. this animation from a leading international aviation shows the impact coronavirus has had on the air travel across the globe. it compared last april to this april. i don't have to tell you which side is which. the group said europe's largest airports have nearly 90% fewer flights compared to this time last year. and the u.s./canadian border will be closed for another month restricting nonessential travel and those restrictions have been in place for just over four weeks. the president said the border will be one of the first to reopen when it is safe to do so. and you have to sigh this. beyonce and jay-z's daughter blue ivy doing her part to raise awareness during the outbreak. watch. >> hey, y'all. since we're stuck at home i have this little diy experiment you

can do at home too. that is why it is important to wash your hands. so i have a mixture of a lot of different types of soap inside of this. and this is the coronavirus or any virus, it is actually just pepper. so you're going to want to stick your finger inside of the mixture so it soaks. make sure you get a lot on there. then -- put your finger in it and the virus goes out. this is why it is very important to wash your hands. >> that was awesome, blue ivy. wow! . her grandmother tina knowles posted that. she use the pepper and soup and bowls of water to show the demonstration of washing your hands. thank you for that. and now to steven mnuchin

taking the coronavirus relief taken up in congress. >> it doesn't sound like state and local government funding will be in this bill. >> the president has heard from the governors and prepared to discuss that in the next bill. right now we have a lot of money that we're distributing to the states. we have $150 billion that we've distributed half, we'll distribute the other half. >> joining me now, mayor greg fischer of louisville, kentucky. he's the vice president of the u.s. conference of mayors. thank you, sir, for staying with us. it is a jumbled up couple of hours here. but stir, your conference had been lobbying for relief for cities. what is your reaction to the news he just heard from steven mnuchin. >> our issue is the cities and the police officers and firefighters and the [ inaudible ] and the ems workers and while they have approved $150 billion it is not for what we need. the $150 billion is only for direct expenses related to

covid. cities around the country are being emptied right now because of the fallout from the economy. that means that we can't afford to keep our firefighters and police officers employed right now. so that language az it related to $150 billion needs to be loosened up to replace the direct revenue we need to keep all of our people employed and we need more cities. only 37 cities benefit from that. we have 1400 members of the united states mayors and in kentucky i'm not the only city, there are 400 other communities that need help right now. >> mayor fisher when you said you can't afford to keep first responders, police, fire and the like on the line, are you saying they've been furloughed or let go. do you not have that kind of protection you need right now in louisville? >> on friday i had to furlough people. we're looking at a combined $50 million problem over our

next two budgets right now. local governments, two-thirds of the budget is made up of public safety. police, firefighters and ambulance, our correction department. so if you have a massive attack on our budget, the declines that we're seeing right now, you can't balance our budget which you have to do at the local level without impacting public safety. owe our number one in the cities is to keep the cities safe and healthy and so we need the assistance to do that right now. so it is repurposing the language in cares 1 and expand the $30 billion for cities and more for counties so everybody could get the relief. every city, every county, every commune needs help and that is not what is happening currently. >> mayor fisher, how long could you go without federal help or have you already passed that mark? >> well, the question of how the local government gets and on the

front line, we're mainstream and where the rubber meets the road. so while the conversation is taking place on the state level, currently we're executing locally so we hear the cries of our citizens on how come we can't do more contact tracing or have more testing and that is where the relief needs to come right now. we know it's going to happen [ inaudible ] so the question is to get it to us sooner so we have less pain now. >> and last question to you, sir, you heard people a lot of things and people are tired of being stuck inside. i know that you there in louisville have seen some demonstrations of folks wanting to break the advice of those to stay inside for their own safety. what is the message that you think protesters may be missing as they listen to the may 14th deadline or aspirational deadline of being able to reopen

louisville. >> well, it is totally understandable if people are exhausted from this. we've done a good job of people staying at home, been able to largely plateau and flatten the curve but we are not out of the woods yet and this virus is waiting for an opening to come raging back into our communities all across america. that is the signs we're not following a certain date, we're following when it is going to open back up and i ask people to be patient. and think about the sacrifice that has come from other generations before us to save lives, ultimately that is what it is all about, lessen the suffering and lessen the deaths that are taking place in our communities across america. >> louisville kentucky mayor greg fischer, sir, thank you so much for your time in these troubling times for you in your city. thank you. well as the coronavirus pandemic takes a brutal toll on health care workers across this country, doctors are telling us what they wish they knew a month ago about fighting covid-19. here is that. >> i wish we woven acted quarantine sooner and social

distancing and really taken this seriously prior to it hitting our nation's shores. >> i wish i was able to understand why some patients do well and why some don't survive. >> what i wish i knew 30 days ago would be how difficult it's become to manage this disease on so many fronts. it is not just in terms of patient care, but the economic and the social and mental health aspects as well. >> what i wish i knew 30 days is what this chaos has done for us as a unit, that has actually been a very positive thing. there is nothing easy about this work. but it will always be worth it. >> joining me now, nbc medical contributor natalie azar and dr. patrice. good to have you both back with me. dr. harris, first to you, with your response, what do you wish

you knew a month ago about this virus? >> alex, it is good to be back with you. and first of all, i just remain in awe every day of my colleagues who are on the front lines working so hard and in hospitals and other facilities across this country. so i certainly want to say that. and i think that i am so glad that i knew at the very beginning of this pandemic and it is something that i still know today that we have to focus on the science and the evidence. social distancing, physical distancing works. it worked in 1918. and it is working now. we have seen the number of deaths decrease. however, the numbers are still unacceptably high and that is one reason we have to continue to physical distance and only loosen these restrictions when the science and the evidence points to that. >> may i get the same question

from you, or answer from you to the same question, dr. natalie? >> yeah, it's hard, alex, hindsight is always 20/20. there is a flurry of activity in communication between multiple different subspecialties happening. infectious disease, rulea willing to and my remails are robust in terms of trying to analyze the data and we're getting interesting data on why some patients decline rapidly and why some patients don't. that is the obvious thing, right, to have some insight into theiddio and pathogen sis of this disease to learn how to manage the patients when they got in. >> dr. harris, what about testing. what are you hearing about this? could parts of the country begin to safely reopen soon? do we have the tests we need to do that?

>> unfortunately we do not. we have been behind since the beginning when it comes to testing both the diagnostic testing and now of course the antibody testing. and so that is why early on in this pandemic the a.m.a. asked the president to use all levers of the federal government to get more tests, actually more ppe. and we are still making that call. i mean, i know that some hospitals and some states say that they have testing that they need. but most of what i'm hearing from colleagues is that we don't. and certainly as we look to reopen the government, reopen our economy and loosen some of the restrictions, we will have to make sure we have a robust testing capacity in place before we do so. and we are just not there yet. >> i'm curious, dr. natalie, why are we not there yet. this is not the first time i've

asked either of you, in fact, if we have enough tests out there. if we have what we need to get back safely into the public space. why do we not? is it confusing? is there a production holdup? why? >> well, you know what, so let me -- i'm sure a lot of people have thought this and have made been reluctant to say. but this is no easy task. i don't want to throw too much blame or criticism because this really is an unprecedented challenge for this country. we have never before been asked to develop a diagnostic test and scale it for literally the entire country ever in our history. in the beginning the administration was criticized of course for being too slow and too rigid in terms of the diagnostic test and now we could easily say maybe i've been too quick because some of the tests that have been allowed to be

rolled out are not accurate. and so i don't think it needs to be binary, i just -- i wish, wish, wish, that we could get everybody on board private/public and get this testing rolled out. >> yep. i think you're right. and i appreciate the generous sentiments that you shared, both of you, patrice harris and natalie azar. doctors, do well out there. next, the american city that flatten the curve and could be the model for the nation. we'll take a look. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking,

or life-threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea. talk to your doctor about chantix. but when allergies attack,f any the excitement fades. the most common side effect is nausea. allegra helps you say yes with the fastest non-drowsy allergy relief and turning a half hearted yes, into an all in yes. allegra. live your life, not your allergies.

and other money managers don't understand why. because our way works great for us! but not for your clients. that's why we're a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. so, what do you provide? cookie cutter portfolios? nope. we tailor portfolios to our client's needs. but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right? we don't have those. so, what's in it for you? our fees are structured so we do better when you do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different. so when it comes to flattening the coronavirus curve, washington state is leading the way. earlier today white house coronavirus response coordinator dr. deborah birx highlighting the city of seattle, the country's first hot spot. >> then we look to seattle, that has been containing the virus and contact tracing and really finding a series of small outbreaks, having that first nursing home outbreak helped

them really put into public health measures that has kept their curve very low. and so when the curves are low, it is much more difficult to predict when the curves are going to fully decline. >> and joining me now is seattle mayor jenny dirkin and well done you. i know that we've spoken before and you've had calls with mayors weeks ago at the outset of this to help them with guidance on what you had experienced and gone through. if we listen to dr. birx saying your curve is low but it is difficult to predict when it will fully decline and where do you think seattle is even on the other side of the curve and what do you need most right now? >> so, alex, i'm thankful that we've had unified leadership here in seattle and washington state and the region. i think that has helped deliver the message on what people needed to do. but we're where we're because people took the steps they needed to take. they stay home and social

distance and telecommunicated. it has been devastated economic impacts but we have flattened the curve. we have helped our first line health care workers about we're far from done. this is a marathon and not a sprint. i know people are tired of hearing that. but it is like if you've ever been to a shopping mall where there is different levels, you could take the elevator up and you get there really fast. but you got to take the escalator down. and we have to keep in place all of the things we're doing. the one thing that i will say we need immediately in seattle, in washington state, is more testing capacity and the ability to contract trace. we can't start to open our economy without those things and we are still woefully shy on both the diagnostic tests and hopefully developing an antibody test. >> yeah. i know that the president may have inspired some of the -- [ inaudible ] that we see and he talks about liberating certain

states in this country but you are seeing exasperated people saying we're tired of staying indoors and not having a paycheck. patience is running thin right now. are you seeing that in seattle? >> we're seeing a little bit of it but not too much. i will say the people in this region want to do what is necessary. we tried really hard at the outset of this to try to build some resilience for those most economically vulnerable but we've seen devastating impacts. everybody wants out from under this. i want it. every mayor across the country wants it. but, you know, you asked in your last section what would you do if you knew something different 30 days ago, what we learned was we didn't have enough testing to see where we really were. as a result of that, thisveracious virus took off. if we make that same mistake again we're be in a worse spot. so i empathize from people who

want a paycheck and come together as a community again. we all want that. and we will get it. but we still have some hard days ahead and we need the federal government to step up. we've got to unleash the innovation and manufacturing power of america to get what we need. and we haven't done that yet. >> seattle mayor jenny durkin telling it like it is. we appreciate it and look forward to seifing you again and continue on the down ward slide. you're a great role model for us all. and the dubious claims and getting to earth day and all things bright and beautiful, we need a soothing life stream of the kentucky equine adoption center. it is a 70-acre farm for horses rescued from abuse and neglect. look at those horses, they graze for hours i'm getting calm just talking about it but if you listen closely you'll hear some

birds chirping. spend less and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. for small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair.com it's a voice on the other end of the phone. a note to say you're on our mind. a willingness to come to you. the world and how we interact with each other is changing. but that will never change who we are at lexus. now, more than ever, you and your needs come first. find out what service options are available in your area at lexus.com/people first

find out what service options are available puberty means personal space. so sports clothes sit around growing odors. that's why we graduated to tide pods sport. finally something more powerful than the funk. tide sport removes even week-old sweat odor. it's got to be tide. now more than ever, we need the good stuff in life. togetherness, ♪ ♪ patience, ♪ ♪ laughter, ♪ ♪ love. milk. love what's real. it means being there for each other. that's why state farm is announcing the good neighbor relief program we know our customers are driving less, which means fewer accidents. so state farm is returning $2 billion dollars to auto policyholders for the period ending may 31st. and we'll continue making real time decisions to best serve you - our customers. because now, more than ever, being a good neighbor means everything. like a good neighbor, state farm is there.

turning to the president's latest coronavirus briefing, it was littered with questionable claims on the pandemic and more including this statement to defend the administration's delayed response. >> speaking to the leaders of other countries this morning, they say it's incredible how you've done this so quickly. weernl talking about

we're only talking about a few weeks since everybody knew this was a big problem. >> joining me is our white house reporter. let's get into it here. was it only within weeks before everybody realized the virus was the problem? >> no, that's not true. we certainly know that this administration had warning signs on its radar early on that it did not see or ignored or could not bring the president's attention. there are real problems with how china trans mitted data. it wasn't as transparent as it should have been. we've seen questions about the world health organization and how they handled this. the president distorted some of that record in recent days from the white house briefing room podium.

but this is the united states was aware of this growing issue in china. the president did move to restrict not end, restrict flights from china in january. 400,000 passengers made it to the united states from china. most of the month of february was allowed to come and go without much being done to safeguard the united states. >> yeah, we're looking at the facts there, the dates from january 30th to more 11th. a good six week break before anything substantive was done except the growth of the coronavirus. >> have they peaked? >> we don't know. there is plateau in certain hot spots, new york included. that is good news. a lot of that is done is because of social distancing measures, the national guidelines that

have been put in place. if those are going to indeed be eased in the coming days and weeks, the president is pushing for the economy to reopen at least in certain portions of the country. odds are those numbers are going to pick back up again. you know, this is going to be -- it's not all a magic wand can be waved and this will go back to normal. this will be a slow and potentially painful process. there will be ups and downs in terms of the number of cases, in terms of the number of deaths and undoubtedly as people start to re-enter every day life, there will be upticks. at least in certain portions of the country. >> big question remains about the testing. they're not making full use of the testing capacity. here's what he said on that. >> you don't hear any more about the ventilators. it's called testing. behave tremendous capacity. dr. birx will be explaining.

that they know that. the governors know that. the democrat governors know that. ther they're the ones that are complaining. >> any truth to that? >> well, that's not right either. there's a -- there's an absolute shortage of testing in the united states. what has happened here and this dates back to the beginning of the crisis, this is washington federal government tried to put the onus on the states. to the response to this pandemic. not nearly enough tests are produced. that is the key issue. it will be impossible, health experts believe, to fully reopen the country. short of the vaccine, unless there is widespread testing, until we know who has this disease, who might be

asymptomatic and who, therefore, is a threat to expose others. >> yeah, well said. also, a fact is we didn't have enough time to fact check everything with he would have liked to. we'll do it again. thank you so much. that's going to do it for me this hour. i i'm i'm alex witt. she'll be talking about the mayor of austin, texas about the protests in his city and he worries about the small businesses in his city. that's next, everyone. new crest pro/active defense. you're doing more to keep your body healthy for the future. shouldn't your toothpaste do the same for your mouth?

now with crest pro/active defense, future proof your whole mouth. its active defense technology neutralizes bacteria to shield against potential issues. crest. at&t knows you have a lot of things on your mind. staying connected shouldn't be one of them. that's why we're offering contactless delivery and set-up on all devices. and for those experiencing financial hardship due to this crisis, we'll work with you to keep your service up and running. hi! because at at&t, we're always committed to keeping you connected.

hello, everyone. tsz been one month since california became the first state in the nation to impose strict stay at home orders. coronavirus continues to claim hundreds of lives every day. there are growing protests against the orders across the country. coming up this hour, the mayor of austin, texas, joins me to talk about the demonstrations in